5 posts tagged with "yama"

To get started in my reading I am focusing my energies on a few sections:

• Biographies. Read biographies of saints and yogis.
• Meditation. Learn the foundations of meditation.
• Cooking. Learn how to cook well.

This also includes a general study of the Hanuman Chalisa, Yoga Sutras and the Bhagavad Gita. The goal is to deepen the study of these three texts.

However, to understand the texts is to study the saints who lived the yogic life. The stories are easier to remember than prescriptions so that is the focus of my energies. Once the stories are internalized then I can then understand the Bhakti and Prayer. The Sadhana portion is there to remove the blemishes and figure out how to lead a more yogic life.

The goal is to build devotion. It is not at this point to decern Brahman or get into pure meditation. It is to purify myself and to get into a belief of Isvara without doubt.

Constantly thinking about work doesn’t focus my brain it scatters it and makes it difficult to focus. So I’ve split my days into three two hour chunks. Scientifically the brain can only work son intensely for a short burst of time. An hour and half seems to be about he max but I given myself a buffer of 15 mins on both sides to get going.

A problem I have faced is a guilt for not studying the shastras on a daily basis. A guilt for not studying that doesn’t lead to any positive outcome other than stress. Sometimes I want to study something else other than shastras. So I am reframing my Work schedule to learn, work and study with a focused intensity.

This means the most important spiritual tasks are my meditations. The true culmination of Bhakti and Karma Yoga. While I do want to study the shastras I will read them in focused intense manner similar to the other tasks that I have in mind. I think this will mean I can focus on finishing a complete text instead of just reading a couple of pages a day. I keep forgetting what I read if I just read a couple of pages a day.

So my work is going to be focused intensely on specific tasks:

• Study intensely a book or topic
• Memorize shastras
• Work on business tasks

The path of yoga that I have been exploring is focused on devotion (bhakti/karma), discipline (raja), and knowledge (jnana). But what I realize is that before anything can be done on the discipline and knowledge path a firm foundation of devotion needs to be established.

This I don't have yet. I have it then I lose it, I get distracted, my ego takes over. I plan for the future! The devotion aspect is quite missing or not deeply rooted and it gets pulled into the whirlwind of life.

The problem I see is that devotion requires always being in the present whereas the ego is always scheming for the future or ruminating on the past. The past is gone and the future is uncertain. But the ego always wants something or another.

I also get caught up on history, economics, politics, and all these external things that are not in my control. These are transient things. They are unreal and fleeting. The only thing certain about them is that they will occur over and over again.

What we are about to face is the Bronze Age Collapse, or a collapse of a civilization. This has happened before and will happen again. So why worry about it? Getting pulled into these things is a distraction.

The only focus should be on devotion and doing the work. Whatever happens, happens.

So I am going to focus on devotion first. The question is how to cultivate devotion.

While I have been practicing meditation and have enjoyed the technical aspects of it, after all that is what the Yoga Sutras are, the problem is that it is not cultivating devotion. I am getting mindful, but without a firm foundation of devotion, my mind is restless and distracted.

It needs to be rooted which I don't have yet.

So while I will continue developing my meditation practice, I am primarily going to focus on devotion. In one way meditation is easier once you do it a while, but devotion is harder because it requires surrendering the ego.

What I realize is that devotion is based on stories. While meditation is a process it is stories that we remember and that we need to connect with. Bhakti is pure duality, Raja is about bridging that duality, and Jnana is about non-duality. So in devotion the first step is to just love Isvara without ego. The way to love Isvara is through stories.

So the goal for devotion is to:

1. Read stories of devotion from various traditions. (Bhagavad Gita, Ramayana, Puranas, etc.)
2. Read the classics from various traditions. (Iliad, Odyssey, etc.)
3. Read stories about saints and devotees from various traditions. (Tulsidas, St. Augustine, etc.)
4. Practice how to cultivate devotion through rituals, prayers, and other practices.

But the focus is stories. To read stories and immerse myself in them.

As part of my Meditation routine I had the study of supplemental texts, but what I found was that this I am going through too many different supplemental texts and not really focusing on any one of them at a time. Secondly, reading secular texts was not happening such as how to be a better father. So I am making some changes to my Routine to solidify the Study & Work time.

They will be two hour chunks of time and I will focus on my work but the first Study & Work will start with 30 minutes of spritual study and the last Study & Work will end with 30 minutes of spiritual study. My focus on these spritual studies will be to the read the same text so that I can focus on getting through a single book.

The primary textual focuses are the Hanuman Chalisa, Yoga Sutras and Bhagavad Gita. Everything else being supplemental to these three core texts. By reading only one supplemntal text at a time I can then focus on improving a single area of weakness instead of spreading myself thin.

The supplemental texts are texts to assist in understanding and put into practice the core texts better. For example, reading "Meditation and Spiritual Life" is there to assist my understanding of the Yoga Sutras. My reading of the "Gospel of Ramakrisha" is a way to understand the Bhagavad Gita better. My reading of Vivekananda is a way to understand the Hanuman Chalisa better.

Finally, since I am moving my study of these texts into the Study & Work period I can spend larger chunks of time reading them when I have time. This allows me to have a larger chunk of time to focus on these texts instead of just small chunks. Each of these supplemental texts are not just for reading but for putting into practice and so having larger chunks of time is important so I can take the knowledge and implement it.

One of the reasons I think this change is also good is that if I do not make it to reading the supplementary texts so I can read other texts I don't mentally feel bad. I still am reading the sastras so it is okay. I can read other texts when I have time.

• Hanuman Chalisa (Karma/Bhakti): Devotion
• Yoga Sutras (Raja): Discipline
• Bhagavad Gita (Karma/Bhakti/Jnana): Wisdom

These three shastras encompass the spirit of the Four Yogas and it seems just understanding these three fully and deeply seems to be sufficient. As I stated on v0.11 that I was going toward this path but I didn’t fully understand the depth of each. Frankly, I didn’t think much of the Hanuman Chalisa and now have absolutely fallen in love with it.

The Hanuman Chalisa is not just a song but each sloka is a mantra and an aspiration of behavior that was exuded by Lord Hanuman. Each sloka has a depth of meaning of the trials of Hanuman and how he overcame them. It is in essence the ultimate in the Karma Yoga texts that are succinct to follow the understanding versus reading Ramakrisha or Vivekananda. While, Ramakrishna and Vivekananda act as gurus to guide us to the Four Yogas the Hanuman Chalisa is a condensed version of the values that they want us to lead.

The Yoga Sutras act as a means for disciplining oneself. If the Hanuman Chalisa teaches how to act outwardly then the Yoga Sutras teaches us how the inner world should be. The Yoga Sutras are a guide on how to structure and setup the inner world so that you can act like Lord Hanuman to always be focused on Lord Ram. Since Rama means “light within” it is also a representation the Brahman.

Lastly, the Bhagavad Gita acts as a bridge between the outer and inner world. While the Hanuman Chalisa deals with outer virtues, the Yoga Sutras the inner world, the Bhagavad Gita deals with the battlefield of life of how to deal with yourself as an individual in society at large. It has the ideas that are included in both the Chalisa and Yoga Sutras as well as the Upanishads. It acts as the source of Jnana Yoga encompassing the why of it all.

These shastras have a lifetime of study ahead of them and I am content knowing what I need to focus my energies around.

Jai Shree Ram